This iteration of the sound wouldn’t remain distinct for long though. The precise robotics of techno muffled by sliding layers of warm, ambient sound made for a hypnotic and fitting replacement in this context. It emerged from the ‘chill-out’ rooms of the UK’s dance music clubs where in the years prior the transportive, melodic ambient house of artists like The Orb and The KLF (as well as the groovier sounds of downtempo) had sound-tracked the gentle come-downs of blissed out ravers. The easiest hot spot of the style to put your finger on though would be within the UK’s early 90s electronic/techno scene, where the style originated. Or non-techno music (one of music’s two primary categories, along with ‘techno music’) has taken major influence from ambient techno’s rhythmics and atmospherics, producing spots of ambient techno located far away from the rest. Rather, more commonly, the style has flavoured other music often, the pounding techno of more recognised scenes has been shaded with the vivid and slow-moving atmospherics of experimental ambient. The historical progress of the ambient techno movement is somewhat difficult to track – partly because ‘ambient techno’ has never really defined a music scene in whole. Discover the top LPs (and artists) from a genre often overshadowed by its most famous exponent: Aphex Twin’s Selected Ambient Works 85-92. These are the best 10 ambient techno albums of all time.

Ambience techno